Framer does not have a built-in store. You add ecommerce with a plugin that connects your Framer site to Shopify. Shopify runs the actual commerce, the products, inventory, cart and checkout, through its Storefront API, and the plugin pulls that data into Framer so you can design the storefront with real components instead of a rigid theme. For a brand with a focused catalogue, that pairing is genuinely good. What it does not do is replace Shopify for scale and complex logic, and it is not meant to. Here is how the setup works and how to tell if it fits you.

How it actually works

Shopify stays the engine. It holds your products, prices and stock and handles the checkout. A plugin connects your Shopify store to Framer using the Storefront API, then gives you components, product cards, variant pickers, collections and a cart, that you style inside Framer. To go live you need two paid pieces: the plugin and a Shopify plan. In practice you get the design freedom of Framer on top of a real commerce backend, rather than fighting a template store.

The two plugins worth knowing

Framer Commerce is the most established option, with a large set of Shopify components for building full storefronts in Framer. It is the one to look at first if you want the widest range of ready-made commerce elements. You can find it on the Framer marketplace.

Frameship is a strong alternative on a one-time payment rather than a recurring fee, one license per project. It syncs live Shopify products, inventory and pricing into Framer and ships prebuilt product, collection and cart components. If you want to avoid a monthly plugin cost, look at Frameship. Either way you still need a paid Shopify plan to publish a live store.

What this setup does well

You get a fast, on-brand storefront that your team can edit, good performance and SEO from Framer, and a proper Shopify backend handling orders, inventory and payments. For a curated range, a furniture brand with a set of signature pieces, a studio with a few products, a maker with a tight catalogue, it is often the ideal middle ground between a generic theme and a full custom build.

Where to let Shopify do the heavy lifting

The more your store leans on scale and rules, hundreds of variants, complex inventory, subscriptions, tricky tax and multi-currency, the more you should let Shopify carry it and keep Framer as the marketing and storefront layer. A simple test: if you could show your whole catalogue on one page and the sale turns on brand and detail, the Framer and Shopify plugin route fits well. If you run a large SKU count with real logic, build the store on Shopify and put your fast Framer site around it.

We build Framer and Shopify storefronts this way, and we will tell you plainly when a project is better served by a full Shopify build. Book a discovery call and we will talk through the right setup for your catalogue.